I think this question is best addressed by first watching this Daily Show clip in which Fox News correspondent Bill O’Reilly accuses the Huffington Post of exemplifying Nazi propagandists in the 1930s because of an inappropriate comment that a user (or 'troll’) made in the comments section of an article about Nancy Reagan. This scenario is summed up nicely with classic Daily Show humor and exemplifies perfectly the issues and concerns I see in blog comments, especially in relation to political issues. In this case the entire Huffington Post was accused of harmful propaganda because of a comment made on one of their news articles. Is it worth it for a news organization to risk their reader’s trust and the blog/sites content because of reader comments? Probably not.
There are certainly a variety of different issues and motives for a blogger or group to disallow comments on his/her/their blog. I would suspect that this happens in the field of political blogs to a much greater degree because political issues are some of the most polarizing topics for debate and would therefore result in the most argumentative, offensive, or inappropriate comments in a thread. This is an unfortunate circumstance because given the proper forum political discussions can be provocative and interesting. However, the fact is that they are also some of the most likely debates to turn nasty, as many bloggers have found. It is this type of comment that has forced many political sites/blogs to stop allowing comments.
Overview
I think this question is best addressed by first watching this Daily Show clip in which Fox News correspondent Bill O’Reilly accuses the Huffington Post of exemplifying Nazi propagandists in the 1930s because of an inappropriate comment that a user (or 'troll’) made in the comments section of an article about Nancy Reagan. This scenario is summed up nicely with classic Daily Show humor and exemplifies perfectly the issues and concerns I see in blog comments, especially in relation to political issues. In this case the entire Huffington Post was accused of harmful propaganda because of a comment made on one of their news articles. Is it worth it for a news organization to risk their reader’s trust and the blog/sites content because of reader comments? Probably not.
There are certainly a variety of different issues and motives for a blogger or group to disallow comments on his/her/their blog. I would suspect that this happens in the field of political blogs to a much greater degree because political issues are some of the most polarizing topics for debate and would therefore result in the most argumentative, offensive, or inappropriate comments in a thread. This is an unfortunate circumstance because given the proper forum political discussions can be provocative and interesting. However, the fact is that they are also some of the most likely debates to turn nasty, as many bloggers have found. It is this type of comment that has forced many political sites/blogs to stop allowing comments.
History
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Opinion
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Future Trends?
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